NEWS

Today is 23 March, which means it’s Darwin’s third birthday! It’s been a whirlwind three years since Darwin Innovation Group was founded on 23 March 2019. To be honest, it’s been a whirlwind time for most companies; a year after Darwin was founded, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the world of work for almost everyone. But we’ve also had a lot of positive experiences, and we’ve had the opportunity to work on exciting projects, such as the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. Darwin’s a slightly unusual company. There are plenty of clothing or kitchenware brands out there, but there aren’t many companies dedicated to combining satellite and terrestrial communications. So where did the idea for Darwin come from? Why and how was it founded? To answer these questions, we spoke to Darwin’s co-founder Daniela Petrovic. How was Darwin created? The concept for Darwin first took root in 2018 at Telefónica, where Daniela worked at the time. At the time, there was a lot of discussion about the need for ubiquitous communications: supplementing terrestrial communications with satellites for greater coverage. ‘One thing I don’t like is hearing the same discussion in two meetings,’ Daniela says. ‘If we’re talking constantly about the need for something, I start getting nervous and I need to do things. There were many conferences, both in the satellite and terrestrial industries, that were talking about the need for ubiquitous communications. I had a discussion with my colleagues to see whether it was possible to do something about it, and then we presented our idea for action to Brendan O’Rourke, the CIO of Telefónica at the time, who was very supportive.’ After Brendan O’Rourke lent his support to the idea, Telefónica invited the European Space Agency (ESA) to discuss forming a company to tackle ubiquitous communications. ESA also liked the idea of combining satellite and terrestrial communications into a single concept, and went on to support Darwin in projects such as the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle. Darwin was created in March 2019, and many of Daniela’s Telefónica colleagues who had supported the concept, such as Ram Kurakula, Rodrigo Barreto, Atul Gokhale and Paul Rizos, would join the fledgling company. One major figure behind Darwin who didn’t work for Telefónica was Milos Petrovic, Daniela’s husband. He was enthusiastic about the idea, and the two of them founded the company together. Daniela was a telecommunications engineer and Milos a computer scientist by background; their different skillsets were able to complement each other in the aims of the company. Looking back and looking forward Darwin was born out of Telefónica and, to start with, the staff consisted largely of people who had worked at Telefónica alongside Daniela. This meant that, from the start, the company had a lot of experience and knowledge from the terrestrial communications industry. An early priority was recruiting people from a satellite communications background in order to turn the idea of ubiquitous communications into something tangible. In the three years since then, Darwin has made a lot of progress. Last year we had the opportunity to demonstrate our ubiquitous communications technology in Cornwall, where, despite variability in both terrestrial and satellite coverage in the area, we were able to remain connected in motion 99% of the time. We’ve also worked on projects that could benefit from this technology. In collaboration with O2, we opened the Darwin SatCom Lab at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in 2020, as a space for testing connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology; remaining connected at all times is particularly important for self-driving vehicles. In collaboration with ESA, meanwhile, we’ve been working on the Air Quality Platform as a way of measuring vehicle emissions. Perhaps the most visible of our projects is the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle, which was launched in 2021 with the aid of many of our partners. It’s now been transporting passengers around Harwell Campus for four months, and we’re working to launch similar autonomous passenger services in other locations, such as Málaga. The importance of collaboration A recurring theme in Daniela’s story was the fact that none of this would have been possible alone. Darwin could not have been founded if it had been a single person’s idea, without the support of others. The creation of Darwin needed the faith and backing of many people. Daniela’s colleagues helped her to shape, refine and present the concept, and Telefónica and ESA’s support helped to make it a reality. Similarly, Darwin would not be able to succeed in its goals as a startup standing alone. We’re able to do the things we do because we have the aid of our partners. Telefónica, ESA, UKSA, Hispasat, Aviva, Cognizant, the University of Oxford and the University of Glasgow: all these organisations have lent their support to Darwin, and, with their help, we’re able to achieve far more than we could ever achieve alone. As we mentioned in our article on the importance of diversity, innovation thrives in an environment with a variety of skills and perspectives. We’re trying to achieve that on a large scale by partnering with these varied organisations, creating an ecosystem to support greater innovation than a single startup is capable of by itself. The story of Darwin isn’t just the story of a company; it’s the story of the people behind that company’s success. Darwin owes its existence to everyone who helped create it, everyone who’s joined along the way, everyone who’s aided in our goals from our partner organisations. With the help of those people, we’re hoping to achieve much more in the future. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Happy International Women’s Day! International Women’s Day is a day for celebrating women and challenging gender inequality. Its history goes back over a century, and in its early days it was tied to the fight for women’s suffrage. If you’d like to know about its origins and its development over the years, you may be interested in the timeline on the International Women’s Day website. Across the world, International Women’s Day is marked in different ways. Some countries observe the day as an official holiday; some countries hold marches; some countries have a tradition of giving flowers or presents to female friends, colleagues, partners and family members. Several women with ties to Darwin have shared their experience of International Women’s Day in Serbia, where the day is often marked with flowers, gifts and festive meals. Our co-founder, Daniela Petrovic, has fond memories of celebrating International Women’s Day: 8 March always made me feel connected with all women around the world and across generations. My earliest memories of 8 March are the smiles on my mum’s and my teachers’ faces when I presented them with flowers. On this day, the whole school would be filled with beautiful bouquets and the teachers looked relaxed and happy. Today I am trying to replicate the same atmosphere with my family and with my extended family, my team at Darwin, and to keep the tradition going. Vera Matijevic, engineer and retired professor of mechanical engineering, also has strong associations with International Women’s Day: It has always been and it still is  a special day for me, filled with wonderful memories, from my children bringing handmade gifts from the nursery school to my colleagues and students bringing flowers. 8 March has always made me feel very happy, respected and loved by the people I am surrounded with. Vesna Petkovic, a managing director with a long history in the nonprofit sector, reflects on the progress that International Women’s Day marks and the road ahead: Women have come a long way in terms of equal rights and independence. Women no longer have to have a man beside them to be able to interact with society, and can use their own intellect and skills to seize their own opportunities. International Women’s Day recognises the progress we have made, and is an event to celebrate equality. Even in countries that don’t officially observe International Women’s Day, events and discussions may be taking place to mark the occasion. If you’re interested in finding out what’s going on near you, or what online events you might be able to attend, the International Women’s Day website has an event search. These days of celebration are important, but it’s also worth remembering that the accomplishments of women and the challenges we face remain relevant throughout the year. As Roberta Mugellesi Dow, Integrated Applications Manager at the European Space Agency, says, ‘Every day should be March 8 for all women in the world.’ With that in mind, we wish all women an excellent day, and a wonderful year to come! Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Last week, we talked a bit about our namesake, Charles Darwin, and his theory of evolution. In this post we’re going to look at a different type of evolution: the evolution of transport. How non-living things evolve We often use the word ‘evolution’ to refer to the way non-living things have changed over time: the evolution of architecture, the evolution of medicine, the evolution of transport. This ‘evolution’ is different from natural selection, of course, because humans are consciously involved. It’s more similar to selective breeding, where humans choose animals or plants with particular qualities and breed them in the hope of manifesting those qualities in their offspring. However, it’s easy to see where the evolution analogy comes from. As time goes by, new techniques and new technologies are developed. If these prove to be more efficient than the previous way of doing things, they may become widespread as more people adopt them. If they prove to be a step down, they will usually be abandoned after this becomes clear. In this way, positive developments survive and the world evolves. At Darwin, of course, we’re particularly interested in the evolution of transport. The decline of the horse Over time, more efficient technologies are adopted and flawed ones fall out of favour. Horse-drawn carriages were used for thousands of years, but they were swiftly replaced by motorised vehicles after their introduction. The Microsoft blog post ‘The Day the Horse Lost Its Job’ gives an idea of how quickly transportation was transformed: In 1900, 6,000 horses hauled New York trolleys, more than all U.S. cities combined. But just 17 years later, the horse-pulled trolley took its last trip and the electric trams took over … In 1890 there were 13,800 companies in the United States in the business of building carriages pulled by horses. By 1920, only 90 such companies remained. An engine-powered car is faster than a horse-drawn carriage, of course, and it also has other advantages. Engines don’t need to rest in the same way horses do, and they aren’t vulnerable to epidemics. In 1872, an outbreak of horse flu brought parts of North America to a halt, causing food and fuel shortages; The Conversation has an interesting article on this epidemic if you’d like to know more. The rise of electric vehicles We’re now seeing the rise of electric cars. Electric cars have a surprisingly long history; electricity-powered vehicles were first built in the nineteenth century, and the first road vehicle to exceed 100 km/h was the electric La Jamais Contente in 1899. In the early twentieth century, petrol-powered vehicles won the race against electric cars, as at the time electric cars struggled to compete in range and speed. Since the 1980s invention of the lithium-ion battery, with its capacity for longer journeys and its relatively low size and cost, electric cars have become more practical and more attractive. However, for a long time, electric cars struggled because the infrastructure to operate them simply wasn’t in place: something that’s now changing. According to gov.uk, the number of public charging devices in the UK has increased by 700% in recent years, from under 4,000 in 2015 to over 28,000 in 2022. With the number of charging points in the UK now over three times the number of petrol stations and constantly increasing, it’s easier than ever to operate an electric car, and that’s reflected in their accelerating sales. In 2020, according to the BBC article ‘Why electric cars will take over sooner than you think’, the number of electric cars sold jumped by 43%, despite the number of overall car sales decreasing during the pandemic. As electric cars produce lower carbon emissions, the government has banned the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, encouraging the evolution of the UK’s vehicles from combustion engines to electric motors. We’re watching evolution in action, as one form of propulsion gradually grows in size and influence, preparing to overturn the status quo. There are more changes to come on the heels of the electric vehicle revolution; self-driving cars are on the horizon. We’re excited to be a part of what comes next, and we hope you are too. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

It was Charles Darwin’s birthday on 12 February, so it seems an appropriate time to take a look back at our namesake. In today’s post we’re reflecting on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Next week, we’ll be tying this back to our work as Darwin Innovation Group, with a piece about the evolution of transport. On the Origin of Species: Darwin’s theory of evolution The concept of species changing across generations existed before Darwin put forward his ideas. Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had previously touched on the subject of different species sharing a common ancestor, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck had put forward his own ideas about evolution at the start of the nineteenth century. However, the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 is considered a turning point for biology. Darwin named and defined the concept of natural selection, a way of explaining the gradual changes that take place in evolution. Natural selection is also known as ‘survival of the fittest’, and it’s the method by which useful traits tend to be passed down to offspring. A ‘useful trait’, in this context, is anything that gives a living creature a survival or reproductive advantage. Occasionally, an individual will be born with a quality that gives it an edge over other members of its species. Natural selection means that this individual is more likely than others to breed, passing this useful quality down to its children. For example, imagine a mouse that’s born with the ability to run faster than other mice. Because this mouse is better at escaping predators, it’s likely to live long enough to breed. If its offspring inherit this quality, the next generation will have more fast mice, which will also have a survival advantage and are likely to have children of their own. In this way, the number of fast mice increases with every generation, and the number of slow mice may begin to dwindle as predators go after the easier targets. Useful traits can differ according to the environment. For example, African elephants have much larger ears than Asian elephants. This is because African elephants live in hotter climates, and heat is quickly lost from their broad ears, helping to keep them cool; they can also use their ears as fans. The trait of large ears evolved among African elephants because these ears gave them a survival advantage in hot environments. Nobody consciously decides which traits are better; they just naturally increase an individual’s chances of living to reproductive age or having more children. In this way, the traits are ‘selected’ by nature, leading to the term ‘natural selection’. Darwin’s ideas weren’t all correct. On the Origin of Species supported Lamarck’s hypothesis that offspring could inherit non-genetic traits developed over the course of the parents’ lives; for example, if a lion became a stronger runner on account of exercising its leg muscles, its cubs might be born as naturally stronger runners. This hypothesis is now discredited, and we understand that a parent’s actions over the course of their life don’t change the genes they eventually pass down in this way. (We’re not going to go into the question of epigenetic inheritance here, but it’s an interesting topic to research if you’d like to know more.) Other scientific thinkers have tested and refined Darwin’s ideas since he put them forward, corroborating the elements that hold up and discarding the elements that don’t. In a sense, the theory of evolution has itself evolved. Why is evolution called a theory? It can be confusing that evolution is called a ‘theory’. In casual conversation, the word ‘theory’ is often used to mean an unproved idea: something that fits the facts but isn’t necessarily true. Because of this, some people hear the phrase ‘theory of evolution’ and think that Darwin’s theory was just speculation. This confusion comes about because the scientific definition of ‘theory’ is different. In the world of science, a theory in the sense of ‘something unproved’ is instead called a hypothesis. If the hypothesis is extensively tested and appears to be accurate, it then becomes a theory. In other words, a scientific theory is a concept that has undergone thorough testing and is now considered to be true. The theory of evolution and the theory of relativity aren’t simply speculation; they have held up to testing over the years, and they are now widely considered by the scientific community to be reliable explanations of the facts of our reality. The evolution of transport The concept of evolution has given us a versatile metaphor for talking about the way other things change over time. For example, we might talk about the evolution of transport. Of course, the evolution of transport isn’t the same as the evolution of life, because humans make conscious decisions to guide the way transport changes. However, there are similarities in the way some developments spread quickly and others are left behind. In our next article, we talk about how transportation has evolved up to this point, how it’s changing now and how we expect it to change in the future. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In November 2021, Darwin and ESA collaborated on a connectivity test at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. We spoke to Darwin’s Rodrigo Barreto and ESA’s Antonio Franchi to get some insight into this test. The background to the test Both Darwin and ESA have facilities at Harwell where we explore our shared interest in combining satellite and terrestrial communications: the Darwin SatCom Lab, and ESA’s 5G/6G Hub. Antonio Franchi, ESA’s Head of 5G/6G and IoT Strategic Programme, suggested that it might be interesting to explore ways that the Darwin and ESA facilities could interact. ESA and Darwin had already collaborated successfully on other projects, such as the Air Quality Platform and Darwin Autonomous Shuttle, so we were very happy to agree to a cross-organisational experiment. Rodrigo Barreto, Darwin’s Lead Architect, visited ESA’s 5G/6G Hub to familiarise himself with it. After the tour, he and Antonio discussed potential tests that Darwin and ESA could perform together. Antonio sketched out what they were envisioning. ESA and Darwin would attempt to communicate over the internet, via video call, while switching between terrestrial 5G and satellite networks on both sides. Would they be able to maintain the connection across different network configurations? The test itself ESA and Darwin decided to use Microsoft Teams for the experiment. During a continuous video call between ESA’s 5G/6G Hub and Darwin’s SatCom Lab, both ESA and Darwin would switch back and forth between different network topologies. If the connection could be maintained, that would be considered a good outcome; it would show that both ESA and Darwin had the capacity to switch between terrestrial and satellite networks without a loss of connectivity, and, more importantly, that widely used applications like Microsoft Teams work well across multiple 5G terrestrial and satellite connections. Rodrigo and Antonio, at the Darwin SatCom Lab and ESA 5G/6G Hub respectively, connected over a Teams call. Over the course of the call, they switched repeatedly between terrestrial and satellite networks on both sides. On the Darwin side, we took advantage of Darwin’s ubiquitous communications technology, which switched automatically between terrestrial and satellite networks when one became unavailable. Rodrigo would periodically disconnect one of the networks, and the technology would switch at once to whatever other network was available. With the use of O2’s mobile network and Hispasat’s satellites, we were able to remain connected to the video call. At the 5G/6G Hub, ESA were able to switch manually between network configurations at the press of a button. ESA used Avanti and Eutelsat’s satellite networks, whereas Darwin used Hispasat. At points, the visual and audio information for the call was being sent through two different satellite networks before arriving at its destination. This was a bizarre way to communicate, of course; it’s rare that you’ll repeatedly switch back and forth between multiple 5G and satellite networks on a single video call! However, we were able to maintain a continuous connection across many different combinations of network configurations (see below how Antonio’s sketch has evolved as a result), which was an impressive achievement. The network switching did have a consequence in the form of slightly delayed communication. When the call had to pass through two satellite networks, Rodrigo and Antonio experienced latencies of up to 1.5 seconds: a result of the sheer distance the information needed to travel, as it was sent into space and returned to earth twice, covering approximately 140,000 km in those 1.5 seconds. Although Rodrigo and Antonio could sense a slight delay in the conversation, the voice and video quality remained good. Looking forward What does this mean, and what other tests could be performed in the future? Some credit for the continuity of connection has to go to Teams itself; the program is designed to accommodate changes in latency, and was able to maintain the video call throughout multiple network changes. However, much of the credit must go to both Darwin and ESA’s capacity to shift quickly between different networks as necessary; Teams wouldn’t have been able to compensate if Darwin or ESA had lost their connection to the internet entirely. This ability to switch networks without losing a connection has many potential applications, from staying connected while travelling to enabling drone deliveries in remote areas. You can learn more about the advantages of supplementing terrestrial networks with satellites in our post ‘Why combine terrestrial and satellite communications?’ Both Darwin and ESA were pleased with the outcome of the test, and we’re already looking forward to other tests we could perform together. In the future, we’d be interested in experimenting with remotely controlling vehicles over different network configurations. ESA also has an article about these over-the-air tests, if you’d like to read more: ‘ESA tests space-enabled 5G connectivity’. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.